Vontaze Burfict Kneed Ben Roethlisberger in Shoulder, Has Long History of Dirty Play

Vontaze Burfict is facing a suspension for his hit on Antonio Brown Saturday night, reports Adam Schefter. While the shoulder-to-helmet hit may not have necessitated this discipline in a vacuum, Burfict had another questionable play in that game, and has a history with the Steelers in general, as well as a history of other dicey plays.

It was Burfict whose tackle in Week 8 put star running back Le’Veon Bell out for the year:

While the play in and of itself was not dirty, Steelers players took exception to Burfict’s celebration of it. “He’s that type of guy,” said Steelers offensive lineman Ramon Foster. “That type of guy gets his sooner or later. So, wait and see, I guess. He’s that type of guy, period. If you’re on the field with him, you know what I mean by that. They’ll play it off; he’ll act dumb about it. But you don’t run across the field hyped, celebrating, jumping up and down when a guy goes down like that.”

Finally, Burfict was fined $25,000 for twisting the ankles of Greg Olsen and Cam Newton after they were already tackled last season:

“I think instances like that that are so clearly premeditated that he had in his mind if those opportunities, that he was going to try to attack not only guys’ legs, but guys who were coming off ankle problems specifically, there’s no room for it,” said Olsen. “I think the punishment needs to go beyond a fine. Guys like that don’t learn from that stuff. He’s been fined a hundred times for head hunting, and he did it to Kelvin (Benjamin) again. You watch the film, that’s just what he is.”